Employees at the Tochoji temple in Tokyo carry a coffin past rows of mortuary tablets marking the deceased on Monday, Feb. 5, 2007. (AP Photo) |
Japanese way of death: Society forces changes in costly funeral cultureMainichi Daily News, March 18, 2007The one-person grave system at Tochoji is among the many ways the Japanese way of death is evolving as people become more individualistic, convenience-minded and eager for bargains. Tokyo, Japan -- Kubo and Sachiko Sakurai are the best of friends. The two seniors sing side-by-side in a chorus group, go out for lunch and dinner together, and even pray for each other. Their closeness won't end with death. Kubo and Sakurai are part of a group at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo brought together by one fact: When they die, their remains will not lie in a tomb with their families, but with each other in a prayer hall instead. "We're like a big family," said Kubo, 64, decked out in an elegant black dress during choral singing practice one recent afternoon for members of Tochoji temple in downtown Tokyo. The family tomb has been the ultimate resting place of the Japanese for more than a millennium. But with plot prices stubbornly high, filial ties fraying, couples splitting and families having fewer and fewer children, the group crypt is facing some competition. |
Kubo and Sakurai are part of a group at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo brought together by one fact: When they die, their remains will not lie in a tomb with their families, but with each other in a prayer hall instead. "We're like a big family," said Kubo, 64, decked out in an elegant black dress during choral singing practice one recent afternoon for members of Tochoji temple in downtown Tokyo. The family tomb has been the ultimate resting place of the Japanese for more than a millennium. But with plot prices stubbornly high, filial ties fraying, couples splitting and families having fewer and fewer children, the group crypt is facing some competition. "In a regular tomb, everybody in the family goes in. But what if you're alone?" asked Bendo Kuroo, a chief priest at Tochoji. "The old way we were doing it just couldn't work anymore. The population is dropping." The one-person grave system at Tochoji -- one of about 1,000 temples offering similar services -- is among the many ways the Japanese way of death is evolving as people become more individualistic, convenience-minded and eager for bargains. A growing number of temples, for instance, are storing remains together in multilayered, underground chambers to save on plot costs. Mourners enter a special room, insert a card into a machine, and a conveyer belt delivers the boxed ashes of their loved ones for praying. And more and more Japanese are doing what was once unthinkable in an ancestor-revering culture: having their ashes scattered in the ocean or over a mountainside. "While some people still cherish the traditional graves, there are also more people who see no value in graves at all," said Hideo Usui, editor at Gekkan Butsuji, a monthly Buddhist journal. "The traditional stereotype on how a grave should be is beginning to fade."
Koyama said the system reflects Japanese society at large. For instance, the graves are particularly popular among women who because of marital problems or difficulties with in-laws, want to be interred separately from their husband's family tomb. Some of the people with reserved spots have taken the extra step of forming clubs for choral singing, water-painting, origami and other hobbies. Socializing with one's eventual crypt-mates might seem macabre. But Kubo and Sakurai -- both widows with husbands interred at Tochoji -- displayed a clear-eyed view of death that illustrates the practical Japanese way of facing life's end. "We all pray at each other's tombs," said a smiling Sakurai, 71, who joined the temple because she has no sons to carry on a family tomb. "The atmosphere here is totally different from other temples."
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Buddhist Weekly News
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A crowded cemetery is surrounded by office buildings and apartment blocks in Tokyo on Monday, Feb. 5, 2007. (AP Photo) 
Misako Kubo, right, and Sachiko Sakurai, left, sing together during their chorus practice at the Tochoji temple in Tokyo on Monday, Feb. 5, 2007. The two women met while registering for burial plots at the temple and are now members of a chorus together and have become close friends. (AP Photo)
Source: The Buddhist Channel at: http://www.buddhistchannel.tv